After a great Fare The Well and a spectacular Summer tour, the end of the year sounded a little too quite. But that was before I received lots of good LPs to spin...

New Year's Eve 1995:Live At Madison Square Garden

Originaly released on 3 CD in 2005, Phish's New Year's Eve 1995 show made its way again to independent record stores on 6 LPs during the Record Store Day on 18th april 2015. This huge boxset is limited to 4500 copies and costs an arm. Of course, no store in France had it and it popped pretty quickly on eBay. Due to its already hish-sky price, scalpers can't charge much more but I've been reluctant to buy one of them over here. I waited several month to see if it would appear on Dry Goods but in september, I've been told by my contact at Phish Inc. that it won't be sold there. Thanksfully, this person managed to got me one of the remaning copies and sold it to me ! I finally received it on the 20th november, around the same time as the other vinyls bellow. But surprisingly, it ended on the Phish merchandise site on 3th december ! Grab it while you can !

The boxset is rather simple but quite nice. With six 12" discs, it's huge and, of course, heavy. It's also my first and only 6 LPs boxset. My second biggest one is David Gilmour's Live in Gdansk with 5 LPs.All pictures and texts are taken from the original CD boxset but re-arranged on six sleeves and a leaflet. A download card is also included and, if you're lucky (if you're the first one actually), you can use mine : just find it on the pictures. One strange thing : the image used by Phish in february to hint at this release (a green square with the words "Side K : you Enjoy Myself"), isn't part of the boxset at all. Actually, the only green things on it are the tittle's letters and side numbers on the outside of the box.

I haven't got the chance to isolate myself for more than three and a half hours yet to proper listen to the music. I haven't listened to the show for many year actually as I haven't been impressed the first time I heard it. Maybe my expectations were too high knowing that Rolling Stone Magazine named it one of the "Greatest Concerts of the '90s", or maybe I wasn't in a good mood...

It's no news, the new Phish studio album has been announced back in october 2013 during the Halloween show (more from me about that soon). Tentatively titled Wingsuit, the Phishbill (downloadable here) explained the concept of an album "from the future". The band went in studio with Bob Ezrin in november and the final product, now called Fuego, has been announced last wendesday for a release date on the 24th june.

We can't really talk about the music right now except for what we heard on Haloween and the first song revealed, Waiting all night. In this new song, you can really hear the work done on the sound of the band and the voice harmonies. We also know which songs played in Atlantic City didn't make it to the record. A song like Snow is really difficult to play and sing on stage but can be a lovely tune if worked well in a studio. That's why I personnaly think they would have fit right. I hope for a future b-sides release like Party Time.Anyway, I'm glade to read that the album will feature guest vocalists and horns. I'm all for a studio album that doesn't sound like the concert. I didn't really enjoyed Joy at the time because the songs were played just like on stage but missed the jams. It seems we won't have such things this time around.

But what stroke me is, of course, the cover art. At first glance, it looks like a photoshoped picture but after a closer look, it's a photo-realistic psychedelic painting of six giant men, standing around an enormous fire explosion in a country landscape. Before you see the tiny houses at the men's feet, you can't have a true sense of the scale of the image.

Which ones do you think they'll use ? I'll try to give away a Fuego CD to one of you (randomly picked) who'd make a good guess.This contest is for European fans only and suggestions must be made in the comments here before the 10th june (or before if the album package is released or leaked prior to this date).

A lithograph taken from the album package

Paco Pomet 'Eden' (Oil on canvas. 130x170cm. 2013)

By the way, do you think we have a pattern or a theme here ? Fuego means fire in spanish and we have a spanish painter who likes to put fire explosions on old-looking pictures.

The first vinyl to reach my turn table was the vinyl edition of By My Side, a collection of ballads from Ben Harper. I found it in a french web store (Fargo) thanks to a tweet from Planète Vinyle, a french website about wax discs. But it turns out that I was in Morocco by that time and I couldn't order it right away. I had to wait my return to France a week and a half later, hoping that the disc would still be available. Luckly I made the order almost as I stepped of the plane and got my package the week later for a nice price (25€ including 3€ for shipping).

Like most of us, I discovered Jennifer Hartswick with TAB, but the girl really need more recognition for his solo work. All of her 3 albums are absolutely great, very jazzy and funky, and her contribution to Everyone Orchestra's first studio album makes it feel like one of her own.

After Trey Anastasio's Bar 17 and Phish's Party Time, the next Trey studio album Traveler (announced for the 16th october 2012) will be the third studio album to feature the song Let Me Lie. Each version is different and you can listen to the last one here : http://diffuser.fm/trey-anastasio-let-me-lie/

The cover art for Trey's 7" vinyl Scabbard and next LP Traveler can be repeated indefinetly like a wallpaper ! The right border continues on the left side and it's the same for top and bottom. I can't wait to see the bonus 7" !

It's the first time that a cover (Clint Eastwood) appears on a Phish or a solo studio album, if you don't count Nothing and Heavy Things that was played by Tom Marshall's Amfibian and Let Me Lie (I wouldn't call them "covers"). Mike Gordon's collaborations with Leo Kottke and Steamroller Wheelies did feature covers but they're not technically "solo records".

The album's title track isn't featured in the vinyl version of Traveler while it's in the CD. The full length music shouldn't fit on one disc and that's why there's a bonus 7" disc with this song and Greyhound Rising.

Traveler, Trey's newest studio album, was co-produced with Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Jónsi) at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT. Musicians include Trey Anastasio Band, Mates of State's Kori Gardner, The National's Bryan Devendorf and Matt Berninger, and Icelandic percussionist Samuli Kosminen.Pressed on gold colored 180 gram vinyl, the album comes with a Traveler bonus 7" as well as a download card for an MP3 version of the album.All pre-orders containing the new album will receive one Limited Edition Traveler Lithograph. The print measures 8"x5" and is signed by Trey. All orders will be shipped to protect the LE print.

Phish instantly became one of the three bands I listened to the most at the time with k's Choice and Smashing Pumpkins. By the way, it's funny how those three bands are still there in my life and how they all split up and came back together at one point (although "coming back together" can be discussed in regards of the Pumpkins).

It's only very recently that I found the words to express why I love Phish jams.While many bands can play inventive improvisations, they sound like if someone pressed the Pause button to let the guy play his solo and the music starts again where it left off.With Phish, the jam moves on, travels, goes forward. At the end of a jam we're not where we were some minutes ago. We've been in a natural voyage and we arrived far further.

Anyway, a lot of things happened in 15 years.The band evolved, went on hiatus, came back, broke up, came back again...Meanwhile, I grew up, built my life, met my wife, learnt a lot, worked as much, bought a house, changed a lot but stayed the same in a way.I often feel like I'm still 17... and then I look at my little boy...

In 15 years, I gathered a lot of Phish-related memories...

I remember trying to figure out what they were saying in You Enjoy Myself.I remember writing to Eric about how I love Junta and the french talk in the background of Dinner and a Movie.

I remember bouncing around the room when I recognized the beginning of Weekend at Burnsie's, the Simpson episode in which Phish play Run Like an Antelope.I remember being amazed by my first mp3 CD player which cost 990 francs at the time (about 150€/$), very expensive for my student girlfriend's wallet).

I remember receiving my first ever Internet order : the Live in Vegas dvd.I remember buying so much promo CDs on eBay for my collection that I couldn't even tell which one I had or not.

As I recently wrote, Internet is my only link to the band. With Phish, it's the thing that has actually changed my life the most in the last 15 years. I could not live without Internet today, just like I could not imagine living without Phish and all that ensued.And for the first time, the Virtual Band became a little more real this year thanks to Mike Gordon visiting Amsterdam for Jam in the Dam. A disturbing experience.

Speaking of "all that ensued", the amount of new music I discovered thanks to Phish is quite astonishing. No other artist got me into so many other artists. My musical horizon is much wider now thanks to them.Obviously, the first band that I think of is the Grateful Dead, which introduced me to Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, Bob Weir & Ratdog...While I was looking for Phish mp3, I quickly came upon Nugs.net with its great NugsCast and Free Stash. Bands like Widespead Panic, String Cheese Incident, Gov't Mule, Lotus, moe. were new to my ears and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know them by now if I haven't heard Fee on that saturday night in Long Island.I also heard for the first time about Talking Heads, Little Feat, Deodato or Frank Zappa with Phish covers.The many side projects are an endless source of discoveries... Vida Blue, Pork Tornado, Oysterhead (which introduced me to Les Claypool), Trey's solo bands (who got me into the great Jennifer Hartswick) and Mike's collaborations like the Benevento/Russo Duo which leaded me to Marco Benevento, Garage a Trois, Everyone Orchestra...And finally there's the musicians the band played with like Dave Matthews and Medesky, Martin and Wood, whom I had the pleasure to see in concert at Jazz à Vienne in 2005.

Now, for the first time, Everyone Orchestra has taken the conducted improvisation concept mastered in their legendary live shows into the studio on Brooklyn Sessions. Conductor Matt Butler invited past collaborators—musical friends like drummer Jon Fishman (Phish), keyboardist/pianist Marco Benevento, Al Schnier (moe.), Jen Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), guitarist Steve Kimock, saxophonist Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), vocalist/percussionist Jans Ingber (The Motet), mandolinist Jamie Masefield (Jazz Mandolin Project) and bassist Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green), to join him for several days of exploration and co-creation. The results range from hard-hitting grooves that take unexpected twists and turns (“Boots”), to sweet and expansive (“Pensive”), all with a spirit that is both liberated and focused.

For me it's, by far, the best album of 2012 and one of my favorite of all times. Yes already.

The ones who helped the project to be released have received their download links for the album and the bonus tracks yesterday. Matt Bulter, the band's leader, invited us to "share this album to listeners".

I hope you'll enjoy this great music as much as I do and that it will leads you to actually buy the CD when it comes out in may !

First of all, its structure is always changing. It's actually a kind of Super Band with each member coming from other bands and none of them is permanent. There are regulars like John Fishman (ring any bell ?) or Marco Benevento and new comers like Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band). it's really an orchestra for everyone to come and play. The only central axis is Matt Butler, leader and creator... whow doesn't play any instrument.

Everybody Orchestra's music can be defined as conducted improvisation. Indeed, Matt Butler conduct the band with gestures, jumps and boards where he writes words, feelings, moods to lead the music. Needless to say, each concert is different as there's no specific "song".

After 10 years of shows, Matt Butler wanred to make a studio album. But how could one make a studio recording of a concert-only, full improvisation, ever changing line-up act ? Simply by re-creating the same feeling in studio for a one of a kind recording : improvisation.

Now, in order to finish producing the album, a project has been set up on kickstarter.com to collect the needed 15.000$. Anyone can participate with any amount to help the cause and your credit card will be charge only if the goal is reached on January 6th 2012.But it's more than just giving money. Depending on how much you gave, you'll receive a download of the album before it's released, a signed CD, all of that + bonus tracks, all of that + a signed poster or picture... It goes on to concert tickets, a meeting with the band or you nammed as producer of the album !So even if you can't afford to have Matt Butler conduct your own band in your living room, it's like you pre-order the album while helping it happens ! It's open to everyone...

When I like something, I just can't get enough of it. It means I seek infos, I buy, I listen to everything I can. Very often, I discover something which leads me to discover something else which leads me to discover something else, and so on... These combos are rather frequent and may have a lot of branchs. The real problem is that I like a lot of different things (music, games, movies, comic books...) and it's often hard to make a choice.

During the past few months, there were several of these phases and I decided to present them as a Phish setlist with two sets (the first one is rather straight, the second one with lots of improv), segues, sandwiches, guests, covers and old tunes.

Don't forget to click on each link as they're all different. Most of them will lead you to the object's description page my other blog Gamusik, where you can browse my collections. Although this website is in french, the collection part should be easy to navigate for english speaking people...